REAL PEOPLE, REAL ISSUES

7 posts categorized "BLACK HISTORY: BLACK FACTS"

December 26, 2008

Kwanzaa or Kwanza, secular seven-day festival in celebration of the African heritage of African Americans, beginning on Dec. 26. Developed by Maulana Karenga and first observed in 1966, Kwanzaa is based in part on traditional African harvest festivals but particularly emphasizes the role of the family and community in African-American culture. Each day is dedicated to a particular principle (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith), and on each day one of the candles on a seven-branched candelabrum is lighted. The celebration also includes the giving of gifts and a karamu, or African feast.

The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa [Nguzo Saba]1) Umojo (Unity) To Strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.2) Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ouselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.3) Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.4) Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.5) Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.6) Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.7) Imani (Faith) To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

December 10, 2008

On the eve of a planned Sotheby’s auction of three documents related to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Belafonte, the singer and a friend of Dr. King who owned the papers, withdrew the items for sale.In a brief statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Sotheby’s said
the items had been removed from the auction roster “at the request of
Mr. Harry Belafonte.” Sotheby’s gave no reason for the withdrawal, and
Mr. Belafonte did not return calls left with his agent.The items
scheduled for the auction on Thursday included a three-page handwritten
outline of one of Dr. King’s most important speeches, “The Casualties
of the War in Vietnam,” delivered in February 1967, and notes for a
speech recovered from his suit pocket after he was assassinated in
1968. The third document was a typewritten condolence letter to Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow, from President Lyndon B. Johnson.After
news reports early this week about the auction the King estate released
a statement condemning the sale and saying that it believed the
documents had been “wrongly acquired” by Mr. Belafonte.“The
King estate contends that these documents are the property of the
estate of Martin Luther King Jr.,” the statement read. “Mrs. Coretta
Scott King and the King estate stopped a previous attempt by members of
Harry Belafonte’s family to anonymously and secretly auction wrongfully
acquired King documents through a Beverly Hills auction house.” In the
statement the estate said lawyers were “looking into issues related to
the December 11th Sotheby’s auction of King documents.”Joseph M.
Beck, a lawyer representing the King estate, did not return calls or an
e-mail message seeking comment. Calls to Bernice King and Martin Luther
King III, children of Dr. King, were not returned. Phillip Jones, a
King family representative, and Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of
Dr. King and president of the King Center in Atlanta, did not return
calls.In a telephone interview before Mr. Belafonte withdrew the
items for sale, David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s, said that the
outline for the anti-Vietnam War speech was written in Mr. Belafonte’s
Manhattan apartment. The notes from Dr. King’s pocket, Mr. Redden said,
had originally been given by Mrs. King to Stanley Levinson, an adviser
to Dr. King, who left the notes to Mr. Belafonte. Mr. Redden said that
Mrs. King had given the condolence letter to Mr. Belafonte. Mr. Redden,
who estimated the documents together could fetch from $750,000 to $1.3
million, declined to comment on whether the King family objected to the
sale of the papers. SOURCE:NYT.COM

July 03, 2008

Back in the 1970s, when the first African American rangers arrived at
Independence National Historical Park, they quickly noticed that little
of their own heritage appeared in stories told at famous park sites.It rankled, and one of them argued that the narratives should be
more inclusive. "Hey, we need to get some more diverse stories going
here," he urged, according to Joe Becton, a park ranger since 1986.
But, says Becton, it "didn't have much impact."In the early 1980s, Charles Blockson, curator of the Blockson
Afro-American Collection at Temple University, argued that at least the
abolitionists, who named the Liberty Bell and transformed it into an
antislavery symbol, should get a nod. The park eventually agreed, but
in the view of many, that nod often amounted to only cursory mentions
at the old Liberty Bell pavilion.In the 1990s, a new management plan acknowledged that African
American history should be a part of park offerings, and suggested
African American programming for Washington Square. Again, not much
happened.But since 2002 - when controversy erupted over slavery in George
Washington's household and the park's failure to acknowledge it - a
great change has swept over Independence Park.Becton now conducts popular Underground Railroad walking tours.Liberty Bell visitors now hear about abolitionism, slavery, women's
rights, immigrant struggles, human rights around the world - and the
role the bell has played in all.The National Constitution Center now displays African American
artifacts found during the archaeological excavation that preceded the
center's construction. A private organization, it has presented
programs and exhibitions of particular significance to African
Americans and is part of the city's Quest for Freedom trail, which
traces the course of the Underground Railroad.In a year or so, according to officials there, visitors at the
African American Museum of Philadelphia a block off Independence Mall
on Seventh Street will see a new permanent exhibition on 18th- and
early-19th-century black life in Philadelphia.SOURCE: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

February 27, 2008

February 26, 2008 -- Today's page looks at the Chicago Defender, which became the world's largest black newspaper. The Chicago Defender was founded by Robert S. Abbott on May 5, 1905,and lauded itself
as the "world's greatest weekly." The Defender was the nation's most
influential black weekly newspaper at the start of World War I. Abbott
started the paper with 25 cents and 300 copies, working out of a small
kitchen in his landlord's Chicago apartment.The first editions were handbills containing local news items gathered mostly from other papers.
The Defender did not use the words "black" or "Negro."
African-Americans were referred to as "the Race." It was militant in
its decry of racial injustice and famous for blazing headlines and
graphic images that depicted the injustices blacks suffered in the
United States, including lynchings. The paper soon attracted national
attention. The Defender provided firsthand coverage of the
infamous Red Summer Race Riots of 1919, which broke out in cities
across the country.The paper was in full support of the Great
Migration (1915-1925), urging Southern blacks to leave the racially
oppressive South and head North for better opportunities. The
paper featured job listings and train schedules, and referred to the
famed migration as the "Great Northern Drive." More than 110,000 blacks
came to Chicago alone, nearly tripling the city's African-American
population.It was no surprise that distributors in the South refused to circulate the paper. The Defender was smuggled in by Pullman porters and entertainers, passed from personto
person and read aloud in barber shops and churches. The Chicago
Defender was the first black newspaper to have a circulation of more
than 100,000, a health column and a full page of comics. SOURCE OF THIS STORY

Efforts by the Black Belt Heritage Area Task Force, which Jones co-chairs, have been underway for about a year. "This is not something that will move through
Congress in a few months," Davis says. "It requires a tremendous amount
of groundwork and preparation before ever making it to Congress. The
area has to be defined, (and) gathering community support is
beneficial. Once it is introduced, I don't foresee any trouble in it
making it through the process. These are usually non-controversial
efforts." Jones says she hopes Davis can introduce the legislation in Congress this year. SOURCE OF THIS STORY

September 2012

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